The present invention relates to a portable log skidder, specifically to a trailer capable of being towed by an all-terrain vehicle and of hoisting on board logs and cut timber.
In the timber industry, large trees are cut down and de-limbed. The bare logs are then removed from the forest using various mechanized systems. These systems are large and expensive and require a long period of use to recoup the owner's investment.
Many private or individual landowners have wooded plots from which they occasionally or periodically desire to remove trees or fallen timber. They may desire to remove trees to improve the overall health of the forest by selective thinning, or to use the remove timber for firewood or to have cut for small lots of sawn lumber.
Cut trees or timber of a useful size are typically too large for an unassisted individual to haul out of the forest. This difficulty is often compounded because the forest is located on a hillside. Woodlot owners typically must use a vehicle, such as a four-wheel drive all-terrain vehicle (“ATV”) to access and remove the fallen or cut timber.
However, using an ATV to simply pull a log out of a forest is difficult. When pulling a timber by a cable attached to an ATV, the front end of the log can dig into the ground or catch on rock outcroppings, boulders or undergrowth. When a dragged log catches in such a manner, it can overturn the towing ATV, causing great risk of injury to the driver, or it can cause significant damage to the frame of the ATV.
To avoid some of these dangers in dragging or otherwise removing a fallen timber or log from a forest, various types of “skidders” are used to raise the front end of a log up and partially onto the skidder, leaving only the trailing end of the log to drag along the ground. This provides less chance of catching on outcroppings or digging into the soil.
A number of examples of skidders are provided in the prior art.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,231,030, issued to Smith, discloses a log skidding trailer with a winch and a single fixed, rigid, near vertical hoist supporting a winch operating a lift cable running through a snatch block at the top end of the hoist.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,155,771, issued to Montz, discloses a simple hoist with boom at its top which can be attached to the end of a pickup truck bed.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,876,174, issued to Arsenault, discloses an improvement on traditional, horse-drawn log transporters, having a simple cantilever frame that may attach to an all-terrain vehicle. It must be positioned over the log, which is then attached to the trailer while its center beam is articulated upwards and raised up by a cantilever action to it by pulling the front end of the center beam down.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,061,150, issued to Rentscheler, discloses a single-handed skidding apparatus comprising a pair of grappling hooks. No cable is provided, and the apparatus must be positioned directly over the log which is to be transported.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,010,933, issued to Doyle, teaches of a skidding vehicle with a winch and a hoist which articulates with the vehicle frame to raise and lower a hoist pulley. A complicated system of springs is used to articulate the hoist.